shìzìpáng
radical_variant

Meanings

  1. 1 altar on left radical (variant of 示)
  2. 2 left form of the altar/spirit radical, Kangxi #113

Tips

usage
on the left flags the sacred — gods, ancestors, ritual, blessing, omens. It is the altar radical squeezed into a four-stroke column for side-by-side compounds. Easy to confuse with the clothing radical , which has one extra stroke (a tick on the right). Never written alone.
history
is the calligraphic compression of , originally a pictograph of a stone altar with offerings on top. In left-position the wide horizontal of keeps its top tick but the lower legs collapse into a narrow vertical, freeing the right half of the host character for a phonetic.
usage
Sacred/ritual cue: (spirit/god), (courtesy/ritual), (blessing), (wish/bless), (ancestor), (society — earth-altar).

Stroke Order

shìzìpáng